Fire lookout · Van Buren County, Arkansas
Bar ōf Ranch Tower
Former Charlotte fire tower, a 100-foot MC-39, moved to Bar ōf Ranch near Clinton, AR; the register gives no build or move dates and says it is on private property.
- Status unknown
- Private land
- Verified
Private land
No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Register says the tower is on private property; no public access described
Status unknown: We do not know yet whether it still stands. Register does not describe the tower's present condition
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Type unknown100-foot MC-39 towerThe design: Aermotor MC-39
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- Unknown
- Height
- 100 ft (30.5 m)
- Elevation
- 760 ft (232 m)
- Agency
- Bill Eoff (administrator per register; private ranch)
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Van Buren County, Arkansas
- Coordinates
- 35.57561, −92.52035
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ar-bar-of-ranch
View from the cab
What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.
Downloads about 3.0 MB of terrain data the first time.
Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.
History
Then and now
- 2026 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered August 16, 2026; administrator Bill Eoff; described as relocated from the former Charlotte Fire TowerSource: nhlr.org
- Date unknown MovedMoved to Bar ōf Ranch from another site.Source: NHLR register entry
- TodayStatus unknownWe do not know whether it still stands.
Old maps of this spot
USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The National Historic Lookout Register describes the Bar ōf Ranch Tower as the former Charlotte Fire Tower, moved to the Bar ōf Ranch, a private ranch outside Clinton in Van Buren County, Arkansas.1 It is a 100-foot MC-39 tower, and the register says it is on private property.1
The register does not say when the Charlotte tower was built or who built it. It also does not say when it was moved or where it stood before.1 The page also describes Camp Charlotte, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp tied to the Soil Conservation Service. It stood near Charlotte in Independence County and was occupied from August 1935 through 1939.1 It does not say whether the camp built the tower, so this story does not connect the two.1
We found no record of who staffed the tower or which fires it watched. The move to the ranch is the only change to the tower's history that the register records.1
The register numbers the entry US 1850, AR 29, records its registration date as August 16, 2026, and lists Bill Eoff as administrator. It gives the elevation as 760 feet (232 m).1
Today the register describes the ranch as a private ranch best known for its chuckwagon races, which draw an estimated 20,000 attendees a year.1 Because the tower sits on private property, we found no public access. Please do not climb it, and ask the owner before any visit.
- Bar ōf Ranch Tower (Relocated), National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ar/bar-ōf-ranch-tower-relocated/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- Firefinder research: Status unknown
- NHLR: Standing
Research (2026-10-09) gives unknown where the source records give standing. The page shows the researched status; please tell us if it is wrong.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, status, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story
More about this lookout elsewhere
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.